Life’s twists, turns don’t faze NC grad
When North Central counselor Kerry Trepus describes senior Lacey Sutton, she uses a baseball metaphor to make her point:
“Life will throw Lacey some curveballs,” Trepus said, “but she’ll be successful no matter what she faces. We have lots of students who have faced adversity, but Lacey hasn’t let that slow her down so far, and I don’t think she ever will.”
So the change that every high school senior faces, the transition to real life, doesn’t faze Sutton, who has attended four elementary schools and two high schools during her academic career. She began ninth grade in Utah, but after a few months moved to Spokane with her mother, and now lives with her grandparents.
“I moved around a lot when I was younger,” she said, “so starting a new high school in the middle of the year wasn’t as hard as it would be for some kids. Lots of people want to make new friends when they’re freshmen, so the adjustment to NC wasn’t too tough.”
Sutton hadn’t been enrolled in honors courses in Utah, but her new counselor at NC pushed her to challenge herself with more demanding courses, and she’s currently enrolled in four advanced placement classes.
“I’ve always been a good student,” she said, “but in middle school, I just decided that I wanted to be even better and I wanted to go to college. Lots of my family had made wrong decisions, and I wanted to be different.”
She’s been accepted at Washington State University, where she’ll take her time figuring out exactly where she wants to focus her efforts.
“I’m just going to start out in general studies until I have more direction. Some people wish I knew what I’m going to do with the rest of my life, but I’m not ready to do that yet.”
One thing Sutton has been ready to do is accept some of the more difficult moments from her turbulent childhood.
“I used to hate it when people made me move,” she said, “but I’m better now about everything that happened. When you’re little, you just want your parents to always be together, but it didn’t happen that way.”
Some of the serenity that Lacey didn’t get to enjoy when she was younger is her gift now to others, Trepus says.
“Everybody feels better when they’re around her. She just leaves an impression, whether you see her every day or once a month, and there’s a sense of calm that she brings. Lacey is unfailingly kindhearted and compassionate, and she’s ahead of lots of other kids in so many ways.”
There is one thing that Sutton would like to change about herself: “I’m driven to succeed, but sometimes I’m too much of a perfectionist. Things that other people can let go, I stress about. I try to remind myself that small setbacks aren’t the end of the world, and they’re not going to follow me around for the rest of my life.”